Boxer: Nuke generator problems known before installation

FILE - In this April 18, 2012 file photo, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. House Republicans determined to show women voters that they have their interests at heart on Wednesday announced plans to renew the Violence Against Women Act, the federal government's main domestic violence program. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
— AP

FILE - In this April 18, 2012 file photo, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. House Republicans determined to show women voters that they have their interests at heart on Wednesday announced plans to renew the Violence Against Women Act, the federal government's main domestic violence program. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
/ AP

Sen. Barbara Boxer is alleging that problems with replacement steam generators at the idled San Onofre nuclear plant were recognized by the plant operator and equipment manufacturer before installation.

Citing a proprietary report by generator manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Democratic senator from California said Wednesday that some further safety modifications to the San Onofre generators were rejected by Mitsubishi and the plant operator in part because it might require a more rigorous review by federal safety regulators.

The twin-reactor plant operated by Southern California Edison has been offline for a year because of the rapid degradation of crucial tubing within steam generators replaced in 2010 and 2011. San Onofre ordinarily provides for about one-fifth of San Diego’s electricity, but was shut down after a radiation release was traced to a generator tube leak.

The full report cited by Boxer — a root cause analysis of replacement generator tube wear — was not immediately available, leaving it unclear whether Edison appropriately tailored its steam generator replacement project to regulatory procedures or may have at some point made an effort to evade safety requirements.

The nuclear commission already had the cited report but has not made it public because it contains proprietary information, said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the agency.

Edison declined to share the report, saying it belonged to Mitsubishi.

In a statement Mitsubishi said “all design decisions for (San Onofre’s) steam generators were made in accordance with well-established and accepted industry standards and practices, along with our own and third-party operating data and experience.”

In a letter Wednesday to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Boxer described the documents contained in the report, which is dated from 2012 and obtained from an undisclosed source.

“The report also indicates that SCE’s (Edison) and MHI’s (Mitsubishi) decision to reject additional safety modifications contributed to the faulty steam generators and the shutdown of reactor Units 2 and 3,” said the letter, signed by Boxer and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. “We urge the NRC to immediately conduct a thorough investigation into whether (Edison and Mitsubishi) did in fact fail to make needed safety enhancements to avoid the license amendment process.”

According to Boxer, the report shows that Edison and Mitsubishi accepted some adjustments to the replacement steam generators but that further safety modifications were rejected.

Quoting the report, Boxer wrote that “among the difficulties associated with the potential changes was the possibility that making them could impede the ability to justify the (replacement steam generator) design” without requiring a license amendment.

Reading from a prepared statement, Dricks of the nuclear commission said that “we have received the letter from Sen. Boxer and Congressman Markey and we’ll respond in the normal course of business.”

Edison released a statement saying its “leadership takes very seriously all allegations raised” by Boxer and that it was fully cooperating with the nuclear commission.

A low-level petition review board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is already considering allegations by the environmental and nuclear safety group Friends of the Earth that Edison violated safety regulations by making substantial modifications to the San Onofre generator design without a quasi-judicial license amendment review.